Biography for
Gary Kemp (I) More at IMDbPro »

Date of Birth

16 October 1959, Islington, London, England, UK

Birth Name

Gary James Kemp

Height

6' (1.83 m)

Mini Biography

Gary Kemp was born in Islington, London in October 1959. On his 10th birthday he got his first guitar from his parents. In the 70's he and his brother Martin went to learn drama at Anna Scher's acting school. Then in 1978 Gary Kemp formed the Makers. After Richard Miller left, his brother replaced him on bass. That's when Gary changed the name to Spandau Ballet. Spandau's break came in March 1980 when they were filmed for a documentary on ITV. When the documentary was broadcast, they record companies were bursting out of their ears. They chose to sign to Chrysalis, as they were offered the most money. For 10 years they had hits like To Cut a Long Story Short (1980), Chant No. 1 (I don't need this pressure on) (1981), True (1983), Gold (1983), Only When You Leave (1984) and Through the Barricades (1986). After Spandau Ballet's completed a tour in 1987, Gary and Martin decided to go into acting once again. They auditioned for the part in the Krays, and in 1989 they played Ronald and Reggie. Soon afterwards this Spandau would split. During the '90s Gary continued to act, most notably playing a part in the Bodyguard (1992). In 1999 Gary was involved in a court battle over £1,000,000 royalties against John Keeble, Steve Norman and Tony Hadley, his 3 other bandmates. Gary won the case. However, in March 2009 all 5 members of Spandau Ballet called a truce, and they announced on the HMS Belfast in London that they would be reuniting for a world tour later in the year.

IMDb Mini Biography By: Richard Baker

Spouse

Lauren Barber	(5 September 2003 - present) 1 child
Sadie Frost	(7 May 1988 - 19 August 1997) (divorced) 1 child

Trivia

Brother of Martin Kemp

Former co-leader of the band Spandau Ballet.

Guitarist, songwriter and sometimes the synthesizer player of Spandau Ballet.

His song "True" was sampled for the P.M. Dawn hit "Set Adrift on Memory Bliss".

The first album he bought was T-Rex's "Electric Warrior".

The first band he saw was Slade when he was 11.

The first single he bought was "Apeman" by The Kinks.

"True" was directly influenced by his love of Marvin Gaye and Al Green. The lyrics were delicately influenced by Nabokov's novel, Lolita.

Spandau Ballet won the Sony Award For Technical Excellence in 1984.

Son Milo Wolf Kemp (born July 14th 2004) with Lauren Barber.

Son Finlay Munro Kemp (born September 20th 1990) with Sadie Frost.

Personal Quotes

"Spandau Ballet is a brand name. Part of me never wants to do it again. Part of me is fascinated of what it would be like. Becuase we spent the most amazing time together."

"I can't get away from 'True'. It's been played 3 million times on American radio."

"I think that Will Young is this generation's Des O'Connor or Max Bygraves. Where is the sex, drama and outrage in music anymore?"

"The thought of going on tour with people like Toyah Wilcox is just appalling. I'm certainly not tempted."

"Kevin Costner told me that 'True' was his and his wife's song. I'm not sure if that's a good thing because they split up soon after."

"I like a band with sex and attitude. Coldplay and Travis do nothing for me."

"Songwriting helps me sort out my personal problems. With acting, you're just a tool for someone's ideas."

Punk was sort of an angry stance against things that had happened just before, against the pop of glam rock, against progressive rock. Music had become very staid and it was about the playing and people obsessed. Eric Clapton was God and we needed an enema within the art form, and punk did do that.

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